Nifty tool for writers

[Sofaspud]

I've been on a bit of a writing kick lately, and completely by accident stumbled across yWriter (I was looking for a low-overhead MP3 player...). It's
actually incredibly useful (to me, at any rate), and so I thought I'd share.

http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html

(apparently the author of Hal Spacejock -- a pretty funny series, IMO -- is also a programmer. Who knew?)

Just as a personal testimonial, I imported a piece I've been working on off-and-on for ... well, more than a year, at this point, and gave it a whirl with
this... and actually -finished- the durn thing. It's not that it makes it easier or anything, but the organization actually let me get past the things
that kept overwhelming me, before.

So, anyway. I'd recommend checking it out, personally.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[robkelk]

(I was looking for a low-overhead MP3 player...)

Some of the older versions of WinAmp are low-overhead.

http://oldversion.com/program.php?n=winamp]oldversion.com - WinAmp

%[link=http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html]http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html]

"yWriter5 is designed for Windows XP, Vista and beyond. Windows 98 users should download and use yWriter 4 instead." Great, just great - I use Win2000...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Sofaspud]

Re: Win2000, it if supports the .NET 2.0 framework, you're probably okay using version 5; I dunno if Microsoft has included that in Win2k or not, though.

As for the media player -- this guy wrote one of his own ("yPlay"), which is what Google was pointing me at; the player he wrote works for my
purposes _and_ includes right-click play controls, which Winamp -- in some boneheaded design move -- buries 2 right-click menus deep. So I'm using yPlay
now, too.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Epsilon]

What kind of files can it work with?

------------------

Epsilon

Considering professional work, but that essentially requires microsoft word files...

[Sofaspud]

It uses plain text and RTF, far as I can tell; meta-data is stored in a text XML file with a custom extension, but my XML parser handles it just fine.

The output can be in, looks like, HTML, RTF, and plain text. Word can handle RTF, if that's the concern.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Wiregeek]

errr.. low overhead mp3 player.. how about global hotkeys instead of right-clicks?

Ctrl-Shift ZXCVB, fr'ex..
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Bob Schroeck]

Huh. Gonna have to give this a try and see how it works for me. A lot of the things he complains about I've never really had problems with. But the
"reporting" and plot organization features sound interesting.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Sofaspud]

errr.. low overhead mp3 player.. how about global hotkeys instead of right-clicks?

Ctrl-Shift ZXCVB, fr'ex..

WinAMP: 36 megs memory usage, takes about 5 seconds or so to start up, requires memorization to control playback if you don't use the main interface (or, right-click two menus deep), has limitations built in to it "inducing" me to purchase it (and achieving the opposite effect).
yPlay: 8 megs memory usage, simple controls, starts in less than 2 seconds, no arbitrary limitations.
I'll use WinAMP over WMPlayer, and I'll use WinAMP when I want purty visualizations and whatnot... but when all I want is background music while a memory hog is running in the foreground (City of Heroes, Visual Studio, etc), I think the choice is clear.

Huh. Gonna have to give this a try and see how it works for me. A lot
of the things he complains about I've never really had problems with.
But the
"reporting" and plot organization features sound interesting.

It's the plot organization that helped me out.  The ability to reorder scenes easily, see their summary, and keep notes right there in the scene without having to switch back and forth between my draft file and my notes file... really helped.  Also, the reports showing who's in which scene and who the viewpoint character is _really_ helped, heh.
Some of it, I'll probably never use.  It has (for example) fields where you can rate different aspects of a scene -- humor, tension, etc.  I don't see myself ever using that.
But anything that keeps _me_ better organized is a win in my book, heh.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Bob Schroeck]

It occurs to me that I really can't use it on my two current projects, as collaboration with Chris and Helen make something like that a bit too complex for
easy coordination. But maybe for the next solo story...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Sofaspud]

I dunno. I guess it depends on how you collaborate, heh.

See, for me, it's better. The collaborations I've done are all at the chapter or scene level -- as in "I'll write this, and this, and
I'll do the framing action for this; you write that and that and that. Go!"

If you're working at a lower level than that, yeah, I imagine it'd be pretty difficult.

For my style, though, it's handy. I can keep notes about who's writing what in the scene itself, including goal dates / deadlines, and when it's
done, just plug it in. It's all just text.

I know I'm probably coming across as OOOohhh, SHINY! but I'm really keen on it, it's already moved me to complete drafts of six scenes for two
different pieces I'm working on, both of which have been languishing lately. Something about being able to see where a scene fits easily without having to
force myself to write it all right then, I think.

You may well have a different writing style, though. Heh.

A picture being worth... 9460 words, in this case (heh), here's an example of what I mean. I imported the first chapter of Reunions, which was posted a
while back, and told it to split it at my scene markers, then went through and added names to scenes. Took all of 15 minutes.



--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[robkelk]

WinAMP: 36 megs memory usage, takes about 5 seconds or so to start up, requires memorization to control playback if you don't use the main interface (or, right-click two menus deep), has limitations built in to it "inducing" me to purchase it (and achieving the opposite effect).

That's what you get for "upgrading"...

WinAmp 2.95: 5MB memory usage, starts within one second, has right-click options at the top level, completely freeware. No "visualizations", though. I posted a link to OldVersions earlier in the thread.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Epsilon]

Yeah, I've been using the same copy of winamp (passed from computer to computer) since 2000. It's very small and very intuitive.

------------------

Epsilon

[Bob Schroeck]

Mm. Okay, I've downloaded a copy of yWriter, and I'll give it a try, maybe over the weekend. I'll let you all know what I think.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Acyl]

Interesting tool. I'll probably download this and give it a whirl myself. I suspect the utility of the program depends a lot on what it is you're writing and what your usual work flow process is.

I...suspect this might actually work for me, if I don't find that the interface sucks rear end or somesuch, given that the grand work of original fiction I've always wanted to crank out does involve flipping between character viewpoints, and is one of those things where I have specific scenes plotted out here and there, but little idea of what lies in between.

I've been able to finish shorter pieces where I was basically able to write it in a linear fashion, start to finish. The going back or shifting stuff around thing, now, THAT has always slain me...or filling gaps in between, and so on... which is what, I suspect, this thing is for.

Probably'll use it to try and finish the last bit of my Superball thing over the Legendary forums, given that the final chapter does actually KINDA exist, just in hideously fragmented form. If that works out, I'll give it a bigger spin.
-- Acyl

[Wiregeek]

Spud - FYI. I picked up a 2 gig stick of ddr at a brick and mortar store today.. for 29$
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Bob Schroeck]

2 Gigs of Dance Dance Revolution? How does that work?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Wiregeek]

not terribly well, I can't hit the tiny little pads with my feet.... 8 P
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Sofaspud]

Wire: best I can find locally is Best Buy... and they want $40 for a single gig. I can get 2 gigs for $60, though! Yay!

Er, wait.

So, I'm looking at picking up 2 gigs for $20, via Amazon, and in the meantime stealing a gig from under the cushions. We'll see.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Wiregeek]

sounds like your best bet.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

Hey guys. Gonna recomend you a very lovely online tool that should work beautifully in conjunction with yWriter.

Etherpad is a simple, online text editing program with real-time collaboration at its core. Because it is strictly online that means that there is no software to download and install so it works accross all platforms. Also, it is the only one that I've seen so far that offers true real-time collaboration. Your writing partner's words actually appear on screen one-by-one and in a highlight that is color-coded to them.

It also features a chat tool so you can discuss the material on hand without using an instant messenger or skype or whatever.

The only downside is that it's in Beta right now due to the load the synchronization server software (the part the makes the magic happen) puts on the hardware-servers. It isn't really an issue of poor programming (though they are working on streamlining it) as much as it is the sheer amount of traffic. To resolve this issue, the makers of Etherpad have enacted a system of authorization. You apply for a link that will let you make a new Etherpad anytime you like, and when they are sure they have the room for the traffic (usually in a day or two now) they'll email you that link. They only ask that you not distribute that link as it could make things for thme very difficult.

My only gripe about it is that you need a low-ping connection - something that I'm lacking over here. The net traffic here on my base has gone insane since the USS George Washington arrived. Even so, I get a connection with enough regularity that I use it often to work on my collaboration projects with my writting partner.

Enjoy!

http://etherpad.com/

[Wiregeek]

...intriguing.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies